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The Word
Come One, Come All!
Dianne Bergant
The very first reading for the First Sunday of Advent included a promise that all nations would stream toward the mountain of the Lord rsquo s house Is 2 2 Today we see this promise fulfilled Magi from the East arrive to pay homage to the newborn king Though the Gospel does not say much about t
Editorials
The Orient From on High
The Editors
In the Liturgy of the Hours, the church salutes the expected Messiah as the Orient from on high (Lk 1:78). The appellation pictures the sun rising from the East to shed its glory on a world enshrouded in darkness. The French term Levant uses the same metaphor to refer to the eastern littoral of the
Faith
A Eucharistic Church
Avery Dulles
Karol Wojtyla has always had a deep eucharistic piety. In 2003 he released his most recent encyclical, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, emphasizing the bonds between the Eucharist and the church. Last spring he announced the beginning of a eucharistic year, which began on Oct. 7 and will culminate at the me
Books
Roots
Peter Heinegg
There rsquo s a well-worn Yiddish story about a yeshiva bokher seminarian who defiantly informs his old rabbi that he has become an apikoyres unbeliever And how long have you studied asks the rabbi suspiciously For five years replies the young apostate Ha snorts the rabbi five yearsand he
Poetry
The Audition
William Greenway
In this game we confess the things
Editorials
A Second Chance
The Editors
Out today, back behind bars tomorrow: high rates of recidivism remain one of the most troubling aspects of our criminal justice system. Referring to released prisoners, President George W. Bush noted in his State of the Union speech in 2004 that we know from long experience that if they can’t
The Health Care Crisis
Michael D. Place
Four years ago, after the newly elected President George W. Bush’s inaugural address, 40 million people were without health care coverage in our nation. At that time, the Catholic Health Association of the United States called for a series of reforms and a sharing of responsibility for health
Letters
Letters
Our readers

Welcome Advance

Brian D. Scanlan’s forthright account (11/1) of wholesome boyhood experiences in the company of an aging priest was a welcome relief from the depressing lore we have painfully endured regarding boy-priest relationships these past years. His memories do not clamor for healing. Yet his otherwise laudable essay betrays an angst, I fear, that is all too common among Catholics still reeling from the pain and shock of the priest sex-abuse scandal. His uncompromising demand that the abusers must be driven out of the priesthood disturbs me greatly. Although I certainly agree that the guilty should pay for their crimes and I deeply commiserate with the young victims of this frightful tragedy, I winced when I read his claim. A new and sad fact is that some priests who have suffered the allegation of sexual abuse have now themselves become victims in this horrific saga.

Despite the feverish rhetoric that frequently frames this explosive issue, it needs to be admitted that not all accused priests have a history akin to that of John Geoghan or Paul Shanley, and they should not be ostracized or exiled as if they did. They are not all serial predators. Neither are they beyond the pale. Yet all of them, even those with a solitary allegation against them often years in the past, are now tarred with the same broad, all-embracing, unforgiving strokes, despite the fact that prior to the Dallas charter some of these priests had ministered effectively, if not admirably, for years in settings without children and with no accusation of impropriety. Now they’re gone; and given their record of restoration and service, there are still those who would drum them out of the priesthood altogether. Did somebody say justice?

Faced with wrenching decisions, people sometimes ask, What would Jesus do? Some fathers of the church judged Peter’s denial of the Lord a crime without parallel. But Jesus did not drive him out of the apostolic college. He not only forgave him; he reinstated him. The fallen, restored Peter retained his leadership of the church. Is this just a pious story to make us feel good during Holy Week, or should Jesus’ action be a paradigm for our own conduct in these anguished, traumatic times?

Perhaps the bishops will revisit this issue when they gather again in 2005 to ponder the norms of the Dallas charter. In the meantime, less harsh and strident language by all participants in the conversation might be not only a blessing but a welcome advance.

(Rev.) William T. Cullen

Books
Lady in Lights
Robert F. Walch
A pioneering 20th-century stage and opera director Margaret Webster challenged not only stage tradition but also mainstream attitudes toward professional women A creative force in the United States and Great Britain Webster is credited with bringing Shakespeare to Broadway Her bold casting of Pau
News
Signs of the Times
From AP, CNS, RNS, Staff and other sources
Ukrainian Catholic Leaders Back Opposition, Speak of Electoral FraudUkrainian Catholic leaders backed opposition protests and said the presidential elections on Nov. 21 were marked by fraud. They also urged the government to avoid violence as hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians took to the streets o
The Word
What's In a Name?
Dianne Bergant
The Advent hymn ldquo O Come O Come Emmanuel rdquo is a song of longing and profound faith But who is Emmanuel Today rsquo s Gospel tells us that the word Emmanuel means ldquo with us is God rdquo and it implies that the child born of Mary is this Emmanuel But what of the child in the firs
A Personal Advent Mystery
Gallaudet Howard
I sit at lessons and carols for the second time, listening to St. Luke’s account of the Annunciation while a baby kicks and swims inside me. The church is candlelit and hushed, fragrant with pine boughs, nothing like the small, hot room where a Middle Eastern Jewish teenager learned from an an
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
George M. Anderson
Delivering a hot meal to an elderly woman in a public housing project is how my Saturday afternoons begin. Her meal and hundreds of others are prepared in the basement of a Manhattan church. Most are eaten right there, but enough are set aside to accommodate shut-ins as part of a program informally
Books
Medieval Myth?
Rachel Fulton
A man stands in a cave Before him glitters an array of beautiful objects some dishes or platters but mostly cups All are enticing but only one is the object he seeks He reaches out and grasps the plainest of all That rsquo s the cup of a carpenter he avers Has he chosen correctly For reade
Columns
A Politician Awakened
Terry Golway
In the aftermath of John Kerry’s electoral defeat, Democrats have begun a conversation among themselves about the importance of being able to speak to, for lack of a better term, voters of faith. The Democrats, everybody seems to agree, just cannot manage to connect with Americans, particularl
The Word
Do You Hear What I Hear?
Dianne Bergant
At Christmastide we hear sounds and voices that seem to be silent the rest of the year We hear lighthearted jingling bells that delight us We sing beloved carols that express messages simple enough for children to understand yet profound enough to challenge us for the rest of our lives We exchan
Faith in Focus
Not Alone in Death
William R. Campbell
I prayed over a dead man today. His name was Jocelyn, and he had only one leg. His other leg had been amputated “not too long ago due to complications from sugar,” said the man in the adjacent bed. That man’s legs had both been amputated at the knees. I guessed Jocelyn had been in
Books
Five Views of Nazism
John P. Galvin
Robert Krieg professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame is the author of several studies of 20th-century German Catholic theologians In the work under review he examines the widely varying stances taken toward Nazism by selected Catholic theologians in Hitler rsquo s Germany His seco
Helping Immigrants Find a Home: An Interview With Joel Magalln
George M. Anderson
Joel Magallán, S.J., is the founder and executive director of the Asociación Tepeyac in New York City. (Tepeyac is the name of the hill near Mexico City where the Virgin Mary is believed to have appeared to Blessed Juan Diego in 1531.) A network of 40 community and parish-based organizations, the
The Word
Rejoice in the Lord!
Dianne Bergant
In the middle of Advent we pause for a moment of rejoicing This is not a period of rest taken during a long journey It is more like a short stop at a scenic view where we stand in awe of the spectacular panorama before us Advent is a liturgical journey toward Christmas the feast that celebrate